Faculty Details

Faculty Profile

Prof. Ar. Dhiraj N. Salhotra
Principal"…Being in a constant quest to for knowledge and remaining grateful for all that is learnt is the process of self-empowerment and enlightenment…"

He graduated in architecture in the year 1996, since then he has practised as professional Architect as well as been a hard core educator and academician. He believes motivation, self-belief and clear focus as the virtues of success.

He has around two decades of teaching experience and has imparted knowledge and conducted quality improvement programmes for excellence in the field of Architecture education in various Institutions.

He has Masters in Arts, with specialization in the subject of History. He has published several articles and research papers on the subject of historicism and research methodologies in Journals and Magazines of National recognition.

He also has a Masters in Architecture. His area of research is extensively based upon identifying design pedagogy and creating a social response while attempting to demystify innovative ways to adopt appropriate methods in managing Urbanization. He has presented on sustainability and humanizing agenda in several National and Inter-national Conferences and Seminars.

He is an excellent team person, voracious reader and performs by leading from front. He believes in the policy of ‘…live and let live…’ as a source of inspiration and constant endeavour towards enabling studies in developing sustainable and humane habitus. His communication skills and ability to handle complex tasks with ease and patience, makes him a mentor, philosopher and guide. He advocates staying updated and informed as the policy for overall growth and excellence.

He recommends ‘Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho and ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ by Richard Bach as a must read for all his students.

Ar. Purvi Kakkad
Vice Principal

A first class graduate from the prestigious Nagpur University in the year 1994, she has since then pursued as a professional Architect. It has been her constant endeavour to achieve holistic development for architectural profession by striving to build a symbiotic relationship between the three key facets of Academics, research and practice.

She finds pursuance to strengthen the teaching-learning process as an inseparable element of achieving quality standards. In the pursuit of academic excellence she also has a specialization with a Masters.

Being self-disciplined, hardworking and motivated are her key traits. In her teaching experience over a decade, she has always found her ability to encourage students in developing an aptitude towards lateral thinking, by giving complete freedom to the processes of decision making and developing design systems. She reckons inculcating strong virtues of affirmative values in students during their formative years helps them to face any adversaries with ease and strength.

She recommends Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam (former President of India), reflecting the early life, efforts, hardship, fortitude and chance of a simple man leading him to achieve as much as he could, as a source of inspiration for every student.

Ar. Sanjeev Joshi
Professor (Design Chair)
"Architecture is something, he believes is not required to be designed but it’s there, existing, it has to be only unraveled, by being responsive to the context"

He is a (1983) graduate from prestigious Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Mumbai. His internship during the studentship has helped him gain practical insight into shaping the Independent Architectural practice he pursued later.
While working, he also joined Law College(1983) as he was influenced by his many family members in the field of Judiciary.

It is his strong belief that to be a good professional one has to be a good person first and a law abiding citizen.

He also has a Masters in Urban Design (1986) from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

In his practice since (1986-2003) he worked on various residential buildings, residential and commercial interior projects. His Architectural practice includes his role as a panel member with Mumbai Repair and Reconstruction Board for five years and as a Consultant Architect for various Branches of a Nationalised Bank in Mumbai.

During his practice he participated in design competition held by IIA for their head office in New Mumbai. He was awarded II price in the1st round in which there were 30 entries from all over India.

In the field of interior design he won a design competition for the turnkey project for a corporate house in Mumbai.

Since 2003 he has worked as a Chief Architect for various developers, during which he had opportunity to work on prestigious projects of high rise buildings in Mumbai and Dubai.
During his close association with many nationally/internationally renowned firms and gained from them immensely while contributing in design development of various projects.

He has travelled to many cities of China to study the mass housing and implement the same in India.
He is into academics for last 5 years along with his practice.
He has taught under graduate as well as post graduate students.
He has been appointed by the council of Architecture as a member of inspection committee for the colleges in India.
He has been the Jury member of the technical and design subjects in various colleges.

Ar. Suvarna Lele
Professor

"... A successful Architectural Design is one that encompasses, conscious outlook towards sustainability while being - sensitive towards the societal need's...""

Architect Suvarna Lele is a first class Graduate from Academy of Architecture in the Year 1986, and after graduation has worked with renowned firms such as Mhatre-Parikh Associates, Nashik since 1987 along with Professional practice, during this period she has been actively involved with the design supervision and execution of various prestigious projects which include residential, commerical and buildings of public significance along with land development and Slum Redevelopment Projects.

She has also has an indepth exposure of working with large and luxurious projects of interiors and landscape. Ever since her initial years of practice she has been keen to work with environmental sensitivity and huamanizing agenda. She started teaching in 1991 after her graduation.

She enrolled herself for Masters in Business management and completed it with distinction. She has been professing For Ecological and Sustainable Architecture from the inception of her career and inculcation of the same values in her practice as well as role as an academician. She possesses post graduation in Architecture with specialization in Cost Effective and Energy Efficient Mass housing and her work was awarded distinction. She has travelled all over India to collect on the site information on the alternative techniques of construction and their application to an Affordable Construction. She worked with several NGOs Which gave her the insight to requirements of Economically Weak Urban and rural section. She discussed all these aspects with her Thesis students. She filmed the discussions and brought the research to academics. She has looked towards Architecture from Humanitarian aspect. She is presently pursuing Masters in ‘Sustainable Development’ and completing the same, this year.

Her role as a teacher of Sustainable Architecture-Architectural practice has not been limited to the design and construction of individual buildings. Determining a facility’s location impacts, transportation, energy and greenhouse emissions that, in turn, impact the mobility footprint of the region. To disseminate knowledge, She has specially created the blogs on several websites that include slideshare.com,scribd.com,autherstream.com and uploaded various presentations on the topic of ‘Green Architecture’ with several case studies and live site examples which have the viewership in thousands and popular among the students.

As a socially active and as a compassionate person she has offered coaching to the weaker students by giving them some special assignments, making them understand the schemes and at times also help them financially by finding them jobs or paying their fees. As she firmly believes in participation of Industry experts in the academics as a significant ingredient to learning, She has arranged several workshops and guest lecturers for the students on various topics related to Architecture. She has also arranged the site visits to for explaining the prevailing and new modes of Construction and Design and how to make them Sustainable.

While continuing with her research for Cost Effective and Energy Efficient Architecture she has attended several Seminars and presented Papers in National and International Conferences.
She is well known with the eminent personalities from the fields of Arts, Sculpture, Photography, fashion Design whom she invites from time to time to have interaction with students.
She has helped in building a Materials Museum for the Institutions she has worked with.
She has penned all the experiences in several National and international magazines to share with her students. She has been invited as a thesis Jury in Architecture by several Universities from India in Architecture.

She has won the most coveted award for her contribution towards the subject of Basic Design presented by M.A.S.A (Maharashtra Association of Schools of Architecture)

She has inculcated the habit of creative thinking or Design thinking in the students encouraging them towards logical thinking process for practical but creative solution. She also encouraged them towards inculcating the hobbies such as travelling, photography, drawing, painting, sculpture for their stepwise development towards creative and critical thinking. She has successfully inculcated virtues of graphic skills, design skills through several allied subjects as creative workshop, basic design, interior design, construction and graphics. She has been a mentor and guide to several research thesis projects and has been successful to impart various skills such as defining the problem, generate alternatives, visual explorations, metaphors, analogies and implementation of ideas.

She recommends 'Towards the New Architecture' by Le Corbusier and 'Pattern Language' by Christopher Alexander as a must read for all students of Design studies.